Deadly mosque raid in Iraq enrages Shiites

BAGHDAD — Shiite political leaders erupted in anger Monday over a U.S.-Iraqi raid that killed at least 16 people at a Baghdad mosque complex, suspending negotiations on the formation of a new government and spurring the provincial governor to cut ties with U.S. officials.

U.S. military and Iraqi officials offered conflicting accounts of the raid. Iraqi officials said that as many as 22 unarmed worshipers were killed in the operation late Sunday on al-Moustafa mosque, where many loyalists of the Mahdi Army and followers of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr pray.

U.S. military officials--who said they thought they were targeting the gathering area for a kidnapping cell and not a mosque--said the U.S. and Iraqi forces were fired upon first and discovered a trove of weapons and roadside bombmaking materials in the complex of buildings.

The incident, and subsequent fallout, raises questions of who has control of Iraqi security forces--the U.S. military or the fledgling Iraqi government--and has led several prominent Iraqi politicians to call for an investigation.

What remains to be seen is whether this rift between the Shiites and the Americans can be quickly repaired as Iraq, with the heavy involvement of U.S. diplomats and military commanders, attempts to put together a government that is widely acceptable in this increasingly divided nation.

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said in a statement that he had spoken to Gen. George Casey, the U.S. commander in Iraq, and was assured that an investigation of the incident would be conducted. President Jalal Talabani on Monday called on U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad to support a U.S.-Iraqi investigation.

"The government needs to act quickly to take control of the security issues and keep it all under the Iraq's control," said Jawad al-Maliki, a member of parliament aligned with the leading Shiite political bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance.

The ongoing negotiations to form a government were canceled Monday as the fallout from Sunday's raid consumed political leaders. It was unclear whether the talks would resume Tuesday.

An aide to Sadr blamed the U.S. military for the raid and criticized the Iraqi government for being too slow to speak out against the Americans.

Sadr, once a pariah whom U.S. officials branded as a murderer, has been elevated to the status of kingmaker in Shiite politics. While he dismisses as illegitimate any government put in place while foreign troops are on Iraqi soil, about 30 parliament members are allies and make up a powerful bloc in the United Iraqi Alliance.

"The [U.S.] occupation force should be blamed for this in the first place, and then the Iraqi government for their silence," said Salman al-Freji, the Sadr aide.

Raid right before prayers

Baghdad Gov. Hussein Tahan called the raid "cowardly" and said Baghdad's provincial and city councils have decided to sever relations with the Americans until an Iraqi-led investigation of the incident is completed. The raid took place about 30 minutes before the evening prayers were to start, and elderly men and a child were among the dead and wounded, he said.

"These were worshipers," Tahan said. "They are guilty of nothing."

Pentagon officials as well as U.S. military officials in Baghdad said the raid was launched on a gathering place for members of a kidnapping cell and that they did not believe troops entered a mosque. Witnesses said the troops did enter the mosque, part of a complex made up of several buildings.

U.S. officials reported 16 insurgents were killed, three were wounded, 18 were detained and a large cache of weapons was found, including 32 AK-47 assault rifles, five grenades, four rocket-propelled grenades, two rocket launchers, two heavy machine guns and 12 switches used to make bombs.

The U.S. military said in a statement that Iraqi commandos and soldiers from the Iraqi counterterrorism force led the raids and were assisted by U.S. Special Forces.

U.S. officials also said American troops were fired upon first. A witness living near the mosque confirmed that people inside the mosque complex shot at the American and Iraqi troops soon after they arrived in the area.

"They provoked the Americans," said the witness, who asked that she not be identified by name.

Khudair al-Khuzaie, a parliament member with the UIA-aligned Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said one person who was wounded in the incident told him that an Iraqi soldier bound and beat him while he lay bleeding from a leg wound.

Shiite politicians offered little to counter U.S. military reports that a large cache of weapons and bombmaking material was found inside the complex.

While the U.S. military disputes essential facts of the incident, the United Iraqi Alliance was quick to condemn the raid and blamed both the Americans and Iraqi forces for acting without restraint. Many Shiite political leaders, mindful of Sadr's clout, were unwilling to directly contradict his account.